20 Ice Formations That Prove Winter Is the Most Dazzling Season

In the winter, you might prefer to stay inside with a warm blanket and a hot drink rather than stare at the miraculous changes that happen when icy winds start to blow. But if you spend all your time indoors, you might miss all the beauty that winter can bring.

Of course, ice and snow are not to be trifled with in the winter time. Massive snow banks on the side of the road, black ice, and avalanches can be deadly to travelers during the winter. However, Mother Nature has a way of making the inclement weather just a bit more bearable by creating ice formations for our eyes to feast upon. Depending on where you live, seeing these natural phenomena can be as easy as walking out your front door. Of course, for those of us who don’t live in colder climates (or are in the Southern Hemisphere), we can’t exactly go outside to see icicles forming on our own homes, photographers have captured some of nature's artwork in all its glory.

From the tiniest, most intricate icicles covering our windows to massive stalactites and stalagmites forming inside Siberian caves, frozen water has a way of becoming truly mesmerizing.

You can take a freezing cold trip from the warmth of your couch (or office chair) by gazing at some of these wondrous formations. Glaciers in Iceland and Alaska, as well as the frozen waterfalls in Sweden look practically otherworldly as the massive amounts of water meeting the freezing air create staggering formations. However, even simple icicles and frost coming off leaves and branches can take on beautiful and peculiar effects.

Frozen Cobweb

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Graveyard Flats

David Clapp/Getty Images

Frost flowers aren’t literally flowers. They’re thin layers of ice formed when the ice is forced outward into a “petal-like” formation. They can usually be found on plants. Here, they're on thin ice in the Canadian Rockies.